Subciliary Approach for Inferior Orbital Rim Fractures; Case Series and Literature Review

To report the outcome of subciliary approach for inferior orbital rim fractures in a series of Iranian patients. This was prospective cross-sectional, being performed during a 12-month period during 2013 in plastic surgery department of Emamreza Hospital of Mashhad. We included 12 patients with traumatic inferior orbital rim fractures who underwent surgical repair through subciliary approach. All the patients were followed for 12 months and were evaluated regarding paresthesia and function as well as presence of a visible scar and lower-eyelid malposition. There were 9 (75.0%) men and 3 (25.0%) women among the patients with mean age of 26.3±10.6 (range 16-48) years. Of the 12 patients treated with the subciliary approach, 4 (33.3%) experienced complications. One (8.3%) patient showed 1.5 mm sclera at the end of one year follow-up. No ectropion or entropion was reported in our series. In contrast to 3 (25.0%) cases of lower lid visible scar, there was no occurrence of hypertrophic scar. It would be expected that the transorbital approach as it offers good visualization of anterior fractures would result in good outcomes in cases of orbital rim and floor fracture.